"Fratello Mare, a reference to Folco Quilici's classic film of the same name, is the latest tropical opus from UK born, Italian based musician Mike Cooper. It's Cooper's continuing ode to the Pacific, its people and the traditions that have flowed from that part of the world into seemingly endless iterations within contemporary culture. Recorded across 2014, the album dovetails neatly with his other Room40 editions White Shadows In The South Seas and the post-everything classic Rayon Hula. It expands his combining of highly personal lap steel playing, with exotic music and percussion alongside field recordings made on islands across South East Asia and the Caribbean whilst on residencies and other travels. At the record's heart is a yearning these distant islands that dot the vast oceans. A love letter of sorts, a poetic and dreamlike wandering, that sonically traverses the ever-changing edge of land and sea and Cooper's musical imagination." (label info) comes with download code